In democratic countries, governmental officials are chosen by the citizens in an election. Conducting an election and voting for candidates for public office can be performed in several different ways. One such way utilizes mechanical voting machines at predetermined polling places. When potential voters enter the predetermined polling place, voting personnel verify that each voter is properly registered in that voting district and that they have not already voted in that election. Thus, for a voter to cast his vote, he or she must go to the polling place at which he or she is registered, based on the voter's residence. Another method for conducting an election and voting utilizes paper ballots that are mailed to the voter who marks the ballot and returns the ballot to the voting authority running the election through the mail. In the usual vote by mail process, the voter marks the ballot to cast his/her vote and then inserts the ballot in a return envelope which is typically pre-addressed to the voter registrar office in the corresponding county, town or locality in which the voter is registered. The voter typically appends his/her signature on the back of the envelope adjacent his/her human or machine readable identification.
When the return envelope is received at the registrar's office of the voting authority, a voting official compares the voter signature on the envelope with the voter signature retrieved from the registration file to make a determination as to whether or not the identification information and signature are authentic and valid, and therefore the vote included in the envelope should be counted. If the identification information and signature are deemed to be authentic and valid, the identifying information and signature are separated from the sealed ballot before it is handed to the ballot counters for tabulation. In this manner, the privacy of the voter's selections is maintained and thus the ballot remains a “secret ballot.”
Vote by mail systems offer many advantages for both voters and election officials in terms of convenience, lower cost, higher voter participation, and potentially greater security and reliability. However, an objection raised to voting by mail is that it can result in organized groups, such as, for example, political parties, labor unions, corporations, churches, advocacy groups or the like, coercing voters to vote in a particular manner or paying voters to vote in a particular manner, also referred to as buying votes (or, from the voters' perspective, selling votes). In either such situations, a voter would merely need to sign the return envelope and give it to some third party with the blank ballot. The third party would then complete the ballot and mail it in the signed envelope provided by the coerced or selling voter. Because the envelope includes a genuine signature, the ballot will be authenticated as a valid vote by the voting registrar.
One possible solution to protect legitimate voters from coercion and for discouraging vote selling is to allow for voters to contact election officials separately and confidentially and rescind their votes prior to tabulation. With respect to coercion, potential coercers would recognize that their coercion may not be effective, since the voter could rescind a vote before that vote was actually tabulated. With respect to vote buying, buyers would be reluctant to buy votes since a voter could potentially sell a vote that is never tabulated. This solution, however, will work only if there is sufficient time delay between the receipt of the ballots and tabulation for a voter to contact election officials. In addition, if voters are not aware that such a right to rescind is available, it will not be utilized.
Another possible method for protecting legitimate voters from coercion and discouraging vote selling is to allow for a voter to return multiple ballots by mail, with only one actually being counted. With respect to coercion, potential coercers would recognize that their coercion may not be effective, since the voter could still vote for himself or herself in such a way that only that vote would be counted. With respect to vote buying, buyers would be reluctant to buy votes since a voter could potentially inconspicuously sell as many votes to as many buyers as he or she wanted, and still vote for himself or herself in such a way that only that vote would be counted. While allowing multiple ballots may seem like a good solution to the vote buying and voter coercion problems, current legislation in many jurisdictions specify that when multiple ballots are received, the ballot to be counted is either the first one received or the last one received (depending on the jurisdiction). This gives some control to a fraudster (a buyer or coercer) to increase the chances that his or her ballot, and not another one from the legitimate voter, will be counted. For example, if the ballot to be counted is the first one to be received, the fraudster would act as early as possible, and if the ballot to be counted is the last one to be received, the fraudster would act as late as possible.
Voting by mail is becoming more prevalent (apart from the usual absentee voting), and in some jurisdictions, entire elections are being conducted exclusively by mail. Thus, it would be beneficial for election officials to be able to detect potential voter coercion or vote buying by organized groups.